Category: RKBA
Governor Parsons has already stated he will pardon them
McCloskeys Plead Guilty To Misdemeanor Charges In Gun Case
The legal saga of Mark and Patricia McCloskey took a surprising turn on Thursday when the couple pled guilty to misdemeanor charges of harassment and assault, agreeing to forfeit the firearms they displayed as a crowd of protesters tromped through their gated community last summer.
Gov. Brad Parson had previously vowed to pardon the couple if they were convicted on charges of unlawful use of a weapon, and the McCloskeys had previously said through their attorney that they weren’t interested in accepting pre-trial diversion in lieu of a trial, which makes the news of their guilty plea a bit of a shock.
After the court hearing on Thursday, Mark McCloskey, who’s running for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Sen. Roy Blunt, was unrepentant about the incident last June.
“I’d do it again,” he said from the courthouse steps in downtown St. Louis. “Any time the mob approaches me, I’ll do what I can to put them in imminent threat of physical injury because that’s what kept them from destroying my house and my family.”
The McCloskeys’ defense lawyer, Joel Schwartz, said after the hearing the couple had hoped to raise money by donating Mark’s rifle to charity, but acknowledged that it was an unusual request.
Because the charges are misdemeanors, the McCloskeys do not face the possibility of losing their law licenses and can continue to own firearms.
On the courthouse steps after the hearing, special prosecutor Richard Callahan said the misdemeanor plea was reasonable noting the McCloskeys called the police, no shots were fired and no one was hurt.
“But I think that their conduct was a little unreasonable in the end,” he said. “I don’t think people should view this case as some type of betrayal or assault on the Second Amendment. We still have the Second Amendment rights. It’s just that the Second Amendment does not permit unreasonable conduct.”
Stanford Study: Most Mass Shooters Have Undiagnosed Psychiatric Illnesses
Over half of the perpetrators were found to have schizophrenia, with psychotic symptoms including the belief they were receiving messages from demons and seeing hallucinations ordering them to “kill, burn or destroy.”
Researchers from the Stanford University School of Medicine have published a study that reveals most of the perpetrators of mass shootings in America are people with undiagnosed psychiatric disorders.
The study focused on 115 assailants of shootings committed between 1982 and 2019, and then narrowed that number down to ones who survived.
“We found that most mass shooters in our study experienced undiagnosed and unmedicated psychiatric illness,” the researchers noted.
Describing the findings as “striking,” the study notes that symptoms of clinical psychiatric disorders were identified in almost all the shooters, 32 out of 35.
Over half of the perpetrators, 18, were found to have schizophrenia, with psychotic symptoms including the belief they were receiving messages from demons and seeing hallucinations ordering them to “kill, burn or destroy.”
A further 10 of the shooters were diagnosed as bipolar, delusional and suffering from personality disorders.
The study also noted that “None were medicated or received other treatment prior to the crime.”
To make the diagnoses, the study focused on the records of forensic psychiatrists and court proceedings, in addition to writings and social media posts made by the shooters.
Researchers also found that in 20 mass shooting cases where the perpetrators died, at least eight had schizophrenia, seven had other diagnoses, and five had unknown mental illnesses.
While concluding that diagnosis and treatment of mental illness could have “decreased violence,” the study notes that “Psychiatric research… on the nature and the incidence of mental illness among mass shooters, however, remains largely understudied.”
“Most of the cases of domestic mass murders possibly might have been prevented had the assailant… been more consistently assisted to receive a correct diagnosis… followed by psychiatric medication treatment… to save lives,” the study suggests.
Leak Shows People Being Added to Prohibited List Without Due Process
WASHINGTON, D.C. –-(Ammoland.com)-Can you be added to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) “Prohibited” list without being convicted of a crime? According to leaked documents received by AmmoLand News, the answer appears to be “yes.”
The document in question is called “Guidance for Requesting a Submission of the NICS Indices Unlawful User/Addicted of a Controlled Substance Files.” It lets law enforcement officials add suspects to the prohibited list even if the subject hasn’t been convicted of a drug charge. Most gun owners are not aware that they can lose their gun rights without a court convicting them of a drug crime. This expanded power brings up a concern that the ability to add a suspect to the NICS Indices violates a person’s right to due process.
The NICS Indices is a list of people prohibited by the FBI from purchasing a gun.
When a Federal Firearms License holder (FFL) runs a NICS background check on a gun buyer, the system runs the purchaser’s name against the NICS Indices. If the system comes back with a positive hit, the FBI’s system will deny the sale of the firearm. No other information is supplied to the FFL about the denial.
The form lets law enforcement add someone to the NICS Indices if the subject fails a drug test. The reporting officer doesn’t have to file charges against the person who fails the drug test. Many positive drug tests are false. In almost all cases, the person is not notified that the law enforcement agency has added them to the NICS Indices.
First shot: 141 House Republicans challenge ATF tax, registration of AR pistols
A majority of House Republicans are vowing to kill a new Biden plan to tax and regulate one of the nation’s most popular firearms for target practice and hunting, claiming it discriminates against disabled veterans and would make all owners “felons overnight.”
Led by Second Amendment advocate Rep. Richard Hudson, 141 Republicans (and likely more to come) are targeting a revived rule from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives backed by the Justice Department to turn AR-style pistols into expensive, hard to get guns.
In a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland and acting ATF Director Marvin Richardson, Hudson wrote, “This proposed guidance is alarming and jeopardizes the rights of law-abiding gun owners and disabled combat veterans across the country.”
He was joined by 140 other Republicans, including the No. 2 and No. 3 GOP leaders, Reps. Steve Scalise and Elise Stefanik, and former leader Rep. Liz Cheney.
While running for president, Joe Biden said repeatedly that he’d act as a check on the radicals within his own party. When he became president, however, Biden quickly invited those radicals to serve alongside him in his cabinet.
Despite his rhetoric of “inclusion,” there is not a single person on Biden’s team who is committed to protecting the Second Amendment—and, worse, there are many who not only favor draconian restrictions upon the right to bear arms, but who were selected precisely because they favor such infringements. Here, as elsewhere, our forty-sixth president is proving the old adage that where politics is concerned, there is little truth in advertising.
Does Louisiana have term limits?
Gov. Edwards expected to veto constitutional carry bill
BATON ROUGE, La. (WAFB) – Gov. John Bel Edwards is looking closely at a bill that would allow most people to be able to carry their firearms concealed without taking a training course but the bill’s chances of being signed into law are looking slim-to-none.
“My position on this has not changed,” said Edwards during a recent interview. “A law enforcement officer doesn’t want to discover someone with whom they’re engaging has a firearm for the first time while they are actually searching them and that leads a lot of problems.”
As a self-declared advocate for the Second Amendment, Edwards’s position on legal gun ownership has been firm. But SB 118, which would do away with requiring training, doesn’t appear to be sitting well with him. And with the likelihood of a veto of the bill coming soon, Sen. Jay Morris (R-West Monroe), says the fight will continue until the goal is achieved.
Religious leaders want a weaponized ATF that enforces gun control by the barrel of a gun
This is what happens when religious leaders get political. You can thank gun control groups for infiltrating these institutions and turning them into lobbyists (for lack of a better terms) on issues that have nothing to do with the 1st amendment (religious freedom).
EPIC Failure ~ Short Barreled Rifles Were NOT Intended to be Regulated by NFA
In 1934, the Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) administration had been in office for one year. The Attorney General, Homer Cummings, was a strong proponent of national gun laws, which, he contended, could get around constitutional constraints by using the power to tax.
The Justice Department crafted a bill to create the National Firearms Act of 1934.
It was a major piece of legislation, arguably the first time the Federal Government had significantly infringed on the right to keep and bear arms, protected by the Second Amendment.
Attorney General Cummings was asked to testify before the powerful Ways and Means Committee in the House, which was considering the bill.
In the original bill, the focus was on pistols and revolvers, short-barreled shotguns, concealable firearms, silencers, and machine guns. Short barreled rifles were not included.
This made sense. The media had hyped the dangers of gangsters roaming the nation and robbing banks, armed with pistols, machine guns, and sawed-off shotguns. These firearms were demonized as “gangster weapons“, much America’s most popular rifle the AR 15 is called an “assault weapon” and demonized under the misleading name today.
There was no demonization of short-barreled rifles. Such items were commonly used for hunting, offered by major manufacturers, usually as a special order. Both Winchester and Marlin made thousands of rifles with barrels less than 18 inches long. Quackenbush made many thousands of popular short-barreled “bicycle” rifles.
The committee transcripts from April 16, 1934, (embedded below) record how short-barreled rifles were added to the National Firearms Act.
The LA Times is Still Denying the Second Amendment
The Los Angeles Times editorial page is less a journalistic enterprise than it is a partisan grievance noticeboard. The editorial board’s descent into trivial activist messaging was on full display in a pair of recent pieces lamenting the federal judiciary’s recognition of the Second Amendment. In both, the editorial board denied the core rulings in the U.S. Supreme Court’s opinions in District of Columbia v. Heller and McDonald v. Chicago that recognized the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms. In neither piece did the would-be jurists at the L.A. Times offer evidence or argument as to their incorrect position or why the legal analysis of self-important regime press agents should carry any weight whatsoever.
The first editorial was published on April 26 and titled, “The Supreme Court agrees to hear a case that could mean more guns in public.” The item took issue with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to grant cert to NRA-backed case New York State Rifle & Pistol Association Inc. v. Corlett. The case challenges New York’s concealed carry licensing scheme and could prompt the Court to recognize that the right to keep and bear arms extends outside the home.
Lamenting the Court’s cert decision, the editorial board wrote,
The case the court accepted Monday (New York State Rifle & Pistol Assn. Inc. vs. Corlett) follows the court’s controversial 2008 Heller decision, which for the first time enunciated a right to own a firearm in the home for self-protection, breaking with historic perceptions that the right was conferred only to members of state militias. From our perspective, it was an errant reading of the Constitution, but unfortunately the nation is stuck with it.
The second editorial was published June 7 and titled, “The judge is wrong: California’s assault-weapons ban must stand.” This piece complained about the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in Miller v. Bonta. The decision, by Judge Roger Benitez, found that California’s ban on commonly-owned semiautomatic firearms violated the Second Amendment.
Benitez’s ruling on the California ban was the result of a faithful interpretation of the Heller and McDonald decisions. We can be certain of this because Heller author Justice Antonin Scalia signed onto a dissent from the denial of certiorari in Friedman v. Highland Park, a case concerning a local ban on commonly-owned semi-automatic firearms, that stated as much. The dissent noted,
Roughly five million Americans own AR-style semiautomatic rifles. The overwhelming majority of citizens who own and use such rifles do so for lawful purposes, including self-defense and target shooting. Under our precedents, that is all that is needed for citizens to have a right under the Second Amendment to keep such weapons.
I’ll take questions that have an affirmative answer for $500, Alex.
Urban Violence: A Problem of Dem Administrations?
ABC News is reporting that “At least four major U.S. cities were reeling from an onslaught of mass shootings over the weekend that left at least 38 people wounded, six dead and police officials alarmed that the surge in gun violence is a prelude to a bloody summer.
But is there more to the story, which mentions Austin, Cleveland, Chicago and Savannah?
What about the politics of the people running those cities? Liberty Park Press checked. All four have Democrat mayors. In Cleveland, Mayor Frank Jackson has already announced he will not seek another term.
Cleveland City Councilman Mike Polensek was quoted by WOIO News noting, “Gun confiscations are up 120%, and we are ten more homicides (as of yesterday) ahead of where we were last year –and last year, we were on our way to set a record number of homicides. It’s not acceptable.”
According to ABC News, “Austin Mayor Steve Adler tweeted that the mass-casualty shooting occurred even as police initiated multiple violence prevention programs intended to combat a recent increase in shootings in the Texas capital city.
“But this crisis requires a broader, coordinated response from all levels of government,” Adler said. “One thing is clear – greater access to firearms does not equal greater public safety.”
Last week in Orlando, Joe Biden was in town to observe the fifth anniversary of the Pulse nightclub mass shooting, during which he declared, “It is long past time we close the loopholes that allow gun buyers to bypass background checks in this country, and the Senate should start by passing the three House-passed bills which would do exactly that.”
But the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms is firing back at Biden.
“Joe Biden told reporters it is time to close loopholes that allow gun buyers to bypass background checks, but it is well-documented that the Orlando mass killer had passed background checks when he legally purchased the rifle and pistol used in the attack,” said CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb. “Biden was either stupid, or intellectually dishonest with his remarks, and I’m livid the establishment media omitted this key fact in its reporting.”
More than half of the country is now a Second Amendment sanctuary – The Gun Writer
The growing national trend of preserving the Second Amendment through local and state legislation has been largely ignored by the legacy media
More than 55% of all U.S. counties are now Second Amendment sanctuaries, and the numbers continue to grow at a rapid pace.
A total of 1,753 of the country’s 3,144 counties — or 55.76% — have either declared themselves Second Amendment sanctuaries or are located in sanctuary states, according to Noah Davis of sanctuarycounties.com and its companion site constitutionalsanctuaries.com
The Second Amendment Isn’t Behind the Rising Crime Rate
In a tumultuous 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic locked down so much of America and the world, one thing that didn’t lock down was the murder rate.
According to the National Commission of COVID-19 and Criminal Justice, which was launched by the left-leaning Council on Criminal Justice, murders across America rose 30% in 2020 when compared to 2019. Based on a survey of 34 cities, they report that: “Homicide rates were higher during every month of 2020 relative to rates from the previous year.”
These gruesome numbers include a 43% rise in New York City in 2020—meaning 131 more murders occurred there than happened in 2019. The numbers were even worse in Chicago, which had a 55% jump (278 more murders) from the previous year.
Not surprisingly, many of those who want the Second Amendment obliterated blame record gun sales for the rise in the murder rate.
“More guns led to more violence,” claimed a story at vox.com. “There’s been a big surge in gun buying this year, seemingly in response to concerns about personal safety during a pandemic. And as the research has shown time and time again, more guns mean more gun violence.”
Of course, most people who follow the Second Amendment debate closely know that, in fact, more guns do not lead to more violence, as researcher John Lott proved back in 1998. Lott, who is president of the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), found that states with the largest increases in gun ownership also tend to have the largest drops in violent-crime rates.
Feinstein Introduces Federal Extreme Risk Protective Order Bill
The matter of Fourth Amendment protections for firearm owners has yet to fully have its day in court. The promising outcome from Caniglia v. Strom on May 17, 2021 does point to gun owners having protection from firearm seizure when a warrant is absent. The Caniglia case was reported nearly a month ago by Cam Edwards, and in his correct estimation, it can have effects going forward concerning due process for those trapped up in such situations, and how the high court views them:
It’s encouraging to see the Supreme Court unanimously agree that Edward Caniglia’s Fourth Amendment rights were violated when his firearms were seized without a warrant, but I suspect that a challenge to a state’s red flag laws would result in a much more divided opinion.
While this case didn’t directly involve a Second Amendment challenge, it’s also good to see that even the progressive wing of the Court concluded that the seizure of Caniglia’s legally-owned firearms infringed on his constitutional rights. It may not indicate a sea change from the liberal justices, but at least in this case they declined to treat the Second (and Fourth) Amendment as a second-class right.
While I agree with Edwards’s suspicion that “red flag” laws might yield a more divided opinion, this case will in my opinion have an impact on litigation against all of the unconstitutional seizure policies. In a concurring opinion, Justice Alito conceded the Caniglia case does not address “red flag” laws directly, but I’m sure the case will be cited in case documents filed in lower courts.
Governor Parson signs it into law
| HB 85 |
Establishes the “Second Amendment Preservation Act,” which creates additional protections to the right to bear arms.
— Signed by Governor |
Ghost Guns and the Deeply American Tradition of Gun Privacy.
“Ghost guns” are the modern manifestation of an American tradition of liberty that stretches back to Lexington and Concord.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-R.I.) introduced the Untraceable Firearms Act, a bill that targets “ghost guns,” or unregistered firearms without serial numbers.
Also called “kit guns” or “80% guns,” most are built at home from manufacturer-produced gun kits. Improvised weapons, also known as “pipe guns,” are another variation, and they’re constructed using 3D-printed parts or salvaged and repurposed materials.
The proposed law would place strict limitations on the obtainment and manufacture of these guns. For example, it would prohibit building or housing a homemade, 3D-printed firearm, as well as trading a kit gun with a friend. Punishments for an initial violation include fines and up to a year in prison. Subsequent violations can incur up to a five-year sentence.
Yeah, that ‘almost’. They’re still basically nonsensical.
Gun Control Group Almost Talks Actual Gun Sense
The phrase “gun sense” is generally nothing more than a euphemism for gun control. It’s a term that’s been corrupted from what it could have meant to be nothing more than a synonym for a term that has less and less popularity with the American public.
However, a gun-control group has decided to step away from talking about infringing on our Second Amendment rights for a moment to talk about something that almost equates to actual gun sense, more or less.
GunSense Vermont, a non-partisan group that works to keep Vermonters safe from gun violence, is looking to change the conversation around gun violence prevention by focusing on safe storage.
At a panel discussion on Thursday, the group focused their conversation on educating gun owners about their responsibility to safely secure guns in their homes to keep them out of the hands of kids, thieves, and anyone looking to cause harm.
Now, this is actually a non-controversial position we should all be able to rally behind.
Of course, the group also says some pretty ridiculous things, such as:
According to GunSense Vermont, a properly stored firearm is one that is unloaded, separate from the ammunition, and locked in a safe.
Meanwhile, one of the honchos (a deputy director) with the group also says that if you’re worried about needing your firearm in a hurry, you should get a quick-access safe.
Which, of course, would require one not to have the weapon “properly” stored.
Then there’s the very real concern of not being able to access the weapon from the quick-access safe because of a loss of fine motor control during a particularly stressful event. Trust me, trying to grab a gun in the middle of the night can be hard enough if it’s in a nightstand drawer. Accessing a combination safe in the mere seconds provided may well be impossible for some.
Yet I don’t want to be too hard on GunSense Vermont.
While they’re a gun control group, they’re actually trying to reach out and talk about non-legislative solutions to firearm-related violence. This shouldn’t be mocked or dismissed, but encouraged. This is something I’m willing to sit down with them and discuss things like this.
You really can’t claim you’re not about banning guns and then not at least try to find non-legislative ways to reduce deaths by firearms. Many of us agree that weapons should be stored safely away from children and thieves. That’s some common ground we can build from. Who knows, maybe we can build from that and find all kinds of other ways to address violent crime without infringing on gun rights.
Either way, this is a good thing.
However, this shouldn’t be taken as me being remotely open to any of their anti-gun proposals. I’m not and I won’t be. See, I think much of our problems with violent crime and other firearm-related deaths can be solved without infringing on the right to keep and bear arms in the least.
My hope is that GunSense Vermont is starting to see things that way as well. I’m not holding my breath, but a guy can dream, can’t he?
Just to point out the intellectual level of some people who believe they’re making a salient point about a subject that anyone can easily determine they are totally clueless about
Letter: What does any of this have to do with the Second Amendment?
Portsmouth Herald
June 10 – To the Editor:
In the news the past month or so:
A 57-year old retired NYC police officer is shot accidentally by a friend trying to break up a dispute outside a pizza parlor.
A 6-year old boy, a passenger in his mother’s car, is shot in a road rage incident.
Another young boy, retrieving his bike from the sidewalk near his home, is shot by a neighbor.
Several dozen are killed or wounded over a weekend in gang-related shootouts in Chicago.
An 18-year old from Ohio is found carrying an AK-47 in a NYC subway.
A woman in Texas shoots a beauty shop owner in a dispute about the cost of her pedicure.
A 5-year old boy is accidentally shot by his mother who was aiming at a dog.
Eight people are killed in Atlanta, followed by shootings in a supermarket in Colorado, an office building in California, a FedEx office in Indianapolis, a rail yard in San Jose. A total of 39 people.
Somebody….anybody….Please! Can anyone tell me what any of this has to do with the Second Amendment?
Anthony McManus
Dover
It’s not just how, but also when, and if you really can that’s important.
There Is Far More to Concealed Carry Than Just Buying a Handgun
You need the proper training and mindset before you decide to concealed-carry a handgun. Here’s what you need to know
There is a lot more to carrying a concealed firearm for self-defense than snapping a holster on your waistband and walking out the door. It’s a serious commitment that will impact pretty much everything someone does outside their home, from the clothes a person wears and how they wear them, to the way they get into a car and buckle a seatbelt, to the exact mechanics of picking something up off the floor—or at least, it should.
If you conceal carry, that means you carry a gun as much as possible to protect yourself and loved ones. It means having a self-defense mindset and having that defensive firearm at the ready. Today, there are a lot of people in the U.S. who may have the necessary physical tools for self-defense, but not the skills or the mindset, which is far more important than which handgun, caliber, or holster someone chooses.
Three weeks until Tennesseans can carry without a permit
NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) – In three weeks, permit less carry goes into effect in Tennessee.
And is it impacting gun sales? The folks at Royal Range in Nashville say they’re not seeing much of an impact on sales due to the Permitless carry law. But, the gun range store says recently they’ve seen a new trend with women.
“So far not a giant impact,” Bob Allen, the Director of Training at Royal Range said. “We’re kind of steady, maybe just a little bit above right now. And really about the same with ammo,” Allen said.
Gun Owner Jarrett Williams said the Permitless carry law will make him buy more guns but not for obvious reasons.
“Yes it will but only because I know there are going to be more people who maybe shouldn’t have guns,” Williams said. ‘I’m going to possibly need something to defend myself against anybody who is less qualified to have a weapon on them,” he added.
Allen at Royal Range said some people are buying up; basically hoarding lots of ammo because they don’t know what the future holds.
“Ammo prices have gone up substantially, but they’ve dropped a bit,” Allen said. “Thousand rounds of 9mm ammo was about $240 before Covid and during Covid it got to $800 and people were still buying it it has since dropped here at our place to $500 for a thousand rounds. And its kind of hard to get nowadays,” he added.
Allen who oversees training at Royal Range says he has seen one major trend; more women buying guns.
‘We’ve seen a lot of; a substantial increase in ladies coming here to buy guns,” Allen said. “We are seeing that increase quite a bit, whether its women self-defense , first time gun owners,” he added.
Allen adds that even though the law takes effect in July, it doesn’t require in- person or online course anymore. Royal Range is putting a course in place to teach people the law when the permitless carry goes into effect.
“We’re all for a person defending themselves. They need to know the law, because if you don’t know the law, you will get in so much trouble. If I pull it out at the wrong time, that’s called aggravated assault which is felony,” Allen said.
He also adds another trend they’ve noticed recently is more people coming to the gun range looking for training.